Modern petroleum exploration and drilling systems (hereinafter referred to as “petroleum mining systems”) may implement electronic-based tools in remote locations (e.g., downhole locations or subsea locations). For example, the tools may comprise sensors, actuators, motors, drills, or other electronic-based tools. To communicate with and/or control the tools, a user interface such as a computer at the earth/sea surface may be employed. If the ability to communicate with and/or control the tools is lost or delayed, undesirable costs may be incurred. For example, the costs may be associated with replacing or repairing at least part of a petroleum mining system. The costs also may be associated with downtime of the petroleum mining system.
To reduce the frequency of incurring such costs, some petroleum mining systems implement redundant electronics to communicate with and/or control the remote tools. For example, an existing petroleum mining system may implement multiple user interfaces having a programmable logic controller (PLC) assigned to each user interface. Therefore, if one PLC malfunctions, or is otherwise inoperable, another PLC may be configured to transmit data from a user interface to the remote tools. However, implementing the redundant PLC system is expensive. Moreover, improvements in the reliability of petroleum mining systems are desirable.